Government wage differentials

This paper shows that public sector wages usually exceed private but the size and composition of the differentials depend on sex and level of government. Using a technique derived from the literature on sex discrimination, these differentials are decomposed into a portion attributable to differences in productivity between the two types of workers and a portion ascribed to economic rent. This rent results from public workers' relatively greater political influence in the government wage-setting process and a systematic upward bias in public wages imparted by present government pay policy.     

MSE-improvement of the least squares estimator by dropping variables

It is well known that dropping variables in regression analysis decreases the variance of the least squares (LS) estimator of the remaining parameters. However, after elimination estimates of these parameters are biased, if the full model is correct. In his recent paper, Boscher (1991) showed that the LS-estimator in the special case of a mean shift model (cf. Cook and Weisberg, 1982) which assumes no “outliers” can be considered in the framework of a linear regression model where some variables are deleted. He derived conditions under which this estimator outperforms the LS-estimator of the full model in terms of the mean squared error (MSE)-matrix criterion. We demonstrate that this approach can be extended to the general set-up of dropping variables. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the MSE-matrix superiority of the LS-estimator in the reduced model over that in the full model are derived. We also provide a uniformly most powerful F-statistic for testing the MSE-improvement.     

Employer Penalties for Failure to Provide Individual Employee Notification Under the Family and Medical Leave Act: “Clarifications” Following Ragsdale v. Wolverine Worldwide, Inc.

This article examines the Supreme Court's ruling in Ragsdale v. Wolverine Worldwide, Inc. (2002) and considers its implications for employer and employee rights and responsibilities relative to implementing the FMLA policies. We provide an overview of the pre-decision regulatory environment including the general leave provisions of the FMLA and DOL's regulations requiring employer notification of leave designated as FMLA leave. We also identify those provisions that the decision did not alter and provide a broader consideration of the issues and implication of this decision for employers and employees.     

Inter-Fuel and Inter-Factor Substitution in NSW Manufacturing Industry*

This paper uses the absolute price version of the Rotterdam model to investigate inter-factor (energy, labour, capital, material), and the inter-fuel (electricity, solid fuel, liquid fuel, gas, other fuel) substitution in NSW manufacturing during the period 1968-69 to 1980-81. Input demand elasticities with respect to input prices and production volume are derived, analyzed and compared with results from previous studies. While generally previous results are confirmed, some divergencies do occur. These are attributed to choice of time period and region.     

Rationalizing Australian Taxation Revisited*

This paper reviews the author's (1971) tax rationalization proposal to examine whether a tax simplification scheme eliminating minor transaction taxes and reducing heavy reliance on personal income tax by introducing a general consumption tax continues to have merit for Australian tax reform. The first part of the paper points to increases in avoidance and evasion as a major change perceivable in Australian taxation between the 1960s and the 1980s and indicates other important changes that have occurred. Section II presents an equity and simplicity case for general indirect consumption taxation supplemented by personal income and wealth taxes. Section III discusses the inter-governmental financial relations implications of the proposed rationalization. The paper concludes that in the light of events in 1983 such rationalization proposals suitably modified continue to have merit.     

Collaboration, peer review and open source software

Open source software development may be superior to proprietary development because the open source organizational form naturally minimizes transactions costs associated with privately distributed information. This manifests itself in the ability of open source communities to encourage critical peer review and the sharing of ideas. When these activities are important, the open source organizational form may do better than a proprietary organizational form. My results suggest why open source is particularly powerful when maintainability of software is critical, and also suggest that the founder of a software project may be more likely to choose open source if there is an existing dominant proprietary software project.     

Can intertemporal choice experiments elicit time preferences for consumption?

The paper considers what can be inferred about experimental subjects’ time preferences for consumption from responses to laboratory tasks involving tradeoffs between sums of money at different dates, if subjects can reschedule consumption spending relative to income in external capital markets. It distinguishes three approaches identifiable in the literature: the straightforward view; the separation view; and the censored data view. It shows that none of these is fully satisfactory and discusses the resulting implications for intertemporal decision-making experiments. JEL Classification C90, C91, D90, D91, D11, D12